Resurrect Parole For Federal Prisoners
The dangerous and growing crisis of federal prison overcrowding is costing American taxpayers over 8-billion dollars annually in operating costs, and it's time to make some bold changes now!
Nearly 30 years ago, The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (The Act) gave birth to the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) as an independent agency of the Judicial branch. (Section 994(a) of title 28) The Act also abolished discretionary federal parole, consequently, greatly increasing the expected time a federal prisoner must serve in prison, which is, by far, the most dominating factor contributing to the federal prison population explosion, from 1987-2013. It's been a mass stockpiling of human beings that is soon to reach a quarter-million federal prisoners.
The rapid population growth of federal prisoners, as explained above, is quickly and positively undermining public confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole, if not promoting disrespect for it, particularly since the Sentencing Commission has from the start ignored the will of Congress concerning prison overcrowding as expressed in Section 994(g) of title 28.
From it's inception, The Act has spawned the construction of dozens of federal prisons spanning from one end of the country to the other, at an average cost of 50-million dollars a piece to build.
Slightly modifying The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 by restoring federal parole would easily save American taxpayers, and the government billions of dollars, reduce prison violence by offering prisoners the incentive of applying for parole with satisfactory conduct while incarcerated, and as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. seeks...to reduce the monstrous prison overcrowding calamity that The Act brought into existence as a result of mid-'80's policy decisions. Policies that have never evolved with the passage of time.
Seeing that the U.S. Sentencing Commission is the direct offspring of The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which is the out-of-control defiant child of Congress, it is only Congress that can control it and rectify the glaring error of its ways.
There is no better time than the present time to resurrect parole for the 219, 200 and growing number of federal prisoners.
The rapid population growth of federal prisoners, as explained above, is quickly and positively undermining public confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole, if not promoting disrespect for it, particularly since the Sentencing Commission has from the start ignored the will of Congress concerning prison overcrowding as expressed in Section 994(g) of title 28.
From it's inception, The Act has spawned the construction of dozens of federal prisons spanning from one end of the country to the other, at an average cost of 50-million dollars a piece to build.
Slightly modifying The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 by restoring federal parole would easily save American taxpayers, and the government billions of dollars, reduce prison violence by offering prisoners the incentive of applying for parole with satisfactory conduct while incarcerated, and as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. seeks...to reduce the monstrous prison overcrowding calamity that The Act brought into existence as a result of mid-'80's policy decisions. Policies that have never evolved with the passage of time.
Seeing that the U.S. Sentencing Commission is the direct offspring of The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which is the out-of-control defiant child of Congress, it is only Congress that can control it and rectify the glaring error of its ways.
There is no better time than the present time to resurrect parole for the 219, 200 and growing number of federal prisoners.
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